Showing posts with label fabric market. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fabric market. Show all posts

Monday, March 7, 2011

Adventures in custom tailoring

A couple friends and I set out early Saturday morning to Beijing's largest fabric market. This fabric market is located in Beijing's Fengtai district, near the Muxiyuan long distance bus station. It is called Muxiyuan fabric market, 木樨园纺织品市场 in Chinese.
It is filled with stall after stall of fabric - every type imaginable. Not many foreigners venture out this way, so the prices are low.

I didn't go with anything in particular in mind, but I stumbled across a print that reminded me of exotic, far away places and beach destinations. I'm always drawn to exotic looking prints like ikat or batik.


I decided I didn't have anything to lose, as I paid less than 10 dollars for enough meters of fabric to make myself a beach tunic/swimsuit cover up. The colors are more vibrant in real life and sort of fade into each other. The fabric is a light linen-y type fabric, very lightweight and slightly sheer with one layer.

Now I just have to find a picture of what I want and bring it to the tailor... who is currently making me a shift dress and a pencil skirt out of some super 120s wool fabric I bought a couple months ago - for $39 USD total. Basically, for $55 USD (fabric plus tailoring) I will have a pencil skirt and a shift dress completely tailored to my body, in the fabric and design of my choosing. Pretty awesome, huh?

Anyway, back to the issue at hand - which tunic style should I have them re-create?

Should I have some unique edging added to the neckline, bottom of the sleeves, and hem of the tunic, like this Milly Cabana Tunic?


Or just have them create a simple, casual design like the one below?


Or this shape?


Any thoughts?

I'll post pictures of my tailor-made shift, pencil skirt, and tunic when I receive the finished products!

ETA: Another picture of the fabric so you can see that it is actually pretty sheer.